Technologies for the placement and storage of materials and tools are well known and are particularly applied in the implementation of additional storage to existing structures such as garages, sheds, off-site storage, and other storage solutions. Wall implemented technologies relating to peg board have historically dominated the market for hand-held tools and other light weight materials and implements to be stored.
Various forms of peg boards and attachment means have been previously developed to aid in storage on structural walls. Hooks and clasps have been developed that attach to the peg board and through one or more holes of the peg board. The size, weight and strength of the attachment means, usually a light-weight steel alloy or aluminum, may be limited by the size and thickness of the peg board and the material of the peg board, usually provided in sheets of various sizes and made from particle board. A further accommodation must typically be made for spacing behind the peg board to allow for the attachment, such as a hook or clasp, to insert into the peg board and between the peg board and the structural wall, as may be shown in the prior art of FIGS. 6A and 6B (hook or clasp not shown). The accommodation is typically the requirement of mounting the peg board upon a framing member such as a 1 inch by 4 inch piece of construction lumber that is further attached to the structural wall. The framing member, regardless of the material or configuration used, creates additional complication to the storage solution, creates additional mounting requirements and holes in the structural wall, and may even block some or many of the holes of the peg board, making the storage solution less attractive functionally as well as visually.
Another primary weakness of peg board systems has been the limitation of the strength of the peg board material and its inability to hold for any preferred duration any material or item of significant weight. Many attempts have been made to either 1) strengthen the attachment point of the attachment means to the peg board, or 2) strengthen the size, material and configuration of the board that was traditionally presented as particle peg board, including laminating the particle board and providing the board in different types of material, such as plastic or metal. Many of these attempts required such complexity in the construction and implementation of the system that in practice the technology is not affordable or is too time consuming in the installation and use of the product. Other attempts do not address the implementation of a system that provides functionality beyond the mere attachment of light-weight materials or tools. Still other attempts may have addressed full storage capacity, but are themselves too bulky, too complex, or do not afford the flexibility of a customized and adjustable storage solution.
One such example of previous technology is described in U.S. Pat. No. 3,452,959, wherein the holes have extensions or rings that are to provide additional strength about the hole. The ring or protuberance extends rearwardly from the plane of the board and it may be the intended purpose to protect the board from damage caused by the repetition of inserting hangers in and out of the board. Another such example is described in U.S. Pat. No. 5,927,517. However, these technologies do not provide an acceptable retaining feature for the attachment, do not provide other retaining features that may be necessary given the type of attachment used, and may not provide an acceptable accommodation for spacing between the hole and the structural wall for hangers or other attachments. Other such systems are described in U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,932,538 and 5,673,803. These systems describe holes in the panels to receive and retain to some extent attachments such as hooks. Again, however, these do not provide particular retention features that provide flexibility for other attachment means, do not provide other retaining features given the type of attachment used, and may not provide an acceptable accommodation for spacing between the hole and the structural wall for hangers or other attachments, restricting its application.
Another example of previous attempts to improve attachment and storage technologies are described in U.S. Pat. Nos. 6,530,486, 5,499,724 and 2,926,824 providing mounting plates with reduced diameter holes or holes on multiple faces of the mounting plates. These systems, although attempting to address the retention of hanging elements, lack the flexibility to accommodate many various attachment means and are limited in application to the configuration restraints of the systems, as well as suffering from the other limitations of the prior art as previously described.
Additional previous attempts are described in U.S. Pat. No. 6,530,486, wherein a pegboard assembly is provided and of a sheet metal construction, wherein hook attachments are provided via holes that allow for the hook to wedge into place. These types of systems have holes that limit the type of attachment means used and do not provide particular retaining features, including but not limited to providing for threaded attachment means, and further not accommodating still other commonly used attachments having more than one attachment point, such as hooks having two attachment points as shown in the prior art of FIG. 4A. The prior art of U.S. Pat. No. 6,530,486 also appears not to be mountable in other than the horizontal direction. Still other past attempts such as U.S. Pat. No. 6,061,909 again suffer from many of the above-described deficiencies. While the attempt is made, for example, to address the identified need to strengthen holes in panel systems, by creating a strengthened punched hole through extrusion forming steps as a straight wall annular flange, the hole and system configuration itself lacks the flexibility to accommodate many various attachment means as previously described and are limited in application to additional mounting systems for the storage solution.
In addition to all of the deficiencies previously described, the prior art may suffer from one or more of the following deficiencies. The prior art may require attachment systems and separate and additional mounting brackets or other mounting solutions as previously described. The prior art may not sufficiently accommodate various attachments between the attachment system and the structural wall, requiring that the attachment system be raised from the structural wall surface by a mounting solution. Regarding many of these systems, and as previously mentioned, one major concern is the structural integrity of the hole, particularly if a fastener such as a screw or bolt or other threaded means is required. Straight wall extrusion type technologies typically may fail when a threaded fastener is used, creating a deformation of the extrusion wall that will result in a split out, resulting in a less stable mount of the fastener or total failure of the material. In order to accommodate, prior art systems may also have required a heavier gauge material to properly retain threaded fasteners and for the depth from mounting surface needed for the straight wall extrusion, creating an undesirably heavy overall system. While still other configurations of extrusions may have been utilized in the past, such as a conical configuration, these also lack the capacity to sufficiently accommodate both a threaded fastener and other non-threaded attachments such as a hook, while still suffering from material deformation and failure as previously described.